Garage sale 'treasure hunt' starts Thursday

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, May 15, 2007

KEVIN BENEDICT

Paul Wasek moves an item in a tent in the driveway of his home due to rainwater on Tuesday. The pictured items will go up for sale starting Thursday morning in a six-family garage sale at the 4668 Myra Lee Drive home in Auburn. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are Treasure Hunt Days in Auburn.

KEVIN BENEDICT

A doll has been set out with other items in preparation for a six-family garage sale that starts Thursday morning at the Wasek home in Auburn.

When garage-sale fever in Auburn starts Thursday morning, Diane Wasek will be ready with a tent and more than 20 tables full of vases, dishes, lamps and all kinds of stuff.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday are Treasure Hunt Days in Auburn, with 118 garage sales in the city and around the area. Maps are available from 29 businesses and organizations that have orange signs in their windows.

This year marks the 26th annual garage sale bonanza, and Wasek has missed only a couple. She's rented a 20-by-30-foot tent and set up 23 tables for all her stuff.

"It's fun when you're doing it. It's not fun when you're setting it up," she said.

She said the sale could earn $1,000, which would be divided among the six families who brought things to sell.

No, she doesn't scout other people's garage sales and scoop up bargains for resale.

"My daughters are all married; they've got extra things," she said.

Cherri Allen, owner of Cherri's Feed-n-Seed and Birder's Boutique, has coordinated the event for four or five years. It's sponsored by the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce.

"It's always been the weekend after Mothers' Day, and that's the first thing I tell people when they call," she said. "It's on my answering machine."

An $8 registration fee gets a spot on the map, plus a pink piece of paper with a big X to put by the driveway and a couple of arrows to put at street corners pointing to the sale.

The official sale times are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. all three days, but Allen knows people show up as early as 7 a.m. Last year, some participants said three days was too long a time, so it was trimmed to Friday and Saturday that year. But she got complaints about that, too. So now the event has returned to the three-day format.